Excellence – ElPropósito4 min de lectura

Four pillars for achieving whatever we set out to do

I recently came across this line from Peter Drucker: "Management required someone to take decisions and be accountable." Accountable is one of my favorite words, and perhaps the one that best captures the actions and attitudes it takes to go beyond simply being responsible for getting something done. Taking action and executing require four key pieces: purpose, strategy, discipline and execution. Strategy is where I find planning can seem a little contradictory, if planning really does lock us into a straitjacket that limits our freedom. Even so, I have my reasons for why we should plan and why it matters.

I always start with purpose. We all have a purpose in this life: companies, teams, organizations of every kind and, of course, people. Knowing that purpose becomes an obligation. It is very hard to execute anything with the excellence and discipline it takes to make things happen when we are unclear on the purpose behind what we are doing or want to do. That is why this step is essential. A clear purpose gives every action the meaning it needs. It is the spark that sets everything in motion. Time and again I find this step is fuzzy, and as important as it is, it simply doesn’t get the attention it deserves.

The next step is to understand, or try to understand, the highly complex environment we live in. Why? To design the set of activities that reflect the position we want to reach over different time frames and how we will get there: the steps to take, the changes to make and so on. In environments that never stop changing, strategy is still essential because it gives us a baseline to measure ourselves against. That is where measurement comes from, the measurement that tells us how close to or far from our plan we are. Which brings us to the next stage, a fundamental one that is very often forgotten: execution.

Execution carries another word inside it, which I will get to shortly: discipline. Excellent organizations are masters at executing their strategy. What is the key to execution, its most important output? The only way to know whether we are doing things right or wrong is to do what we have to do, when we said we would. Of course we want our actions to deliver what we set out to achieve. Yet in today’s world we plan for A and get Z. The way to reach the port we want is to hold the course we set, which makes execution the philosopher’s stone of any strategy.

Our values sit beneath discipline. Acting as if today were the last effort we could ever give something, because tomorrow we may not be here, turns out to be a way of realizing that we owe our very best to everything we do. In moments of discouragement we need an inner strength that helps us discipline ourselves, and this is where genuine leadership comes in, the kind that keeps building the future no matter what. Building the future means selling that future to others, convincing them and carrying it out whether things are going well or badly. Discipline takes courage. It also takes memory, to know that once we have done what had to be done, whatever the result, we will be satisfied that we did the work.

Warm regards and all the best,

Rodrigo Baccaro

P.S.1. I dedicate this post to my beloved homeland, my Guatemala. On this election day, I ask God that we may always keep the freedom to fulfill our life purpose in this beautiful country, and that those who govern remember they owe themselves to their citizens. May they act in tune with the country’s purpose and its plans, and take care to carry out with excellence and discipline the mission we entrust to them with our vote. Today more than ever, I hope those who govern have a clear strategy and execute it with discipline for the good of the country. May the rule of law prevail and, to paraphrase Professor Benegas Lynch, may the life project of others be respected above all else, based on non-aggression, freedom and private property.

• P.S.2. This week’s VELA:
• What I was watching: 10 Stoic principles for building self-discipline. What stands out most for me in Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations is his sense of urgency about knowing one’s life purpose. I think this video on self-discipline is great
  – What I was listening to: Tim Ferriss, How to Learn Better & Create Your Best Future. This episode brings together two titans, Tim Ferriss and Andrew Huberman, two of my favorite authors, and it is one of the best things I have heard so far in 2023
  – What I was reading: Siempre en pie (Always Standing). I simply never want this book to end
  – What I was learning: How to break a fast. From Dr. La Rosa’s channel. For those of us who do intermittent fasting, knowing what to eat when you break your fast is vital. This is the video to watch

Author: Rodrigo Baccaro

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